Gun Nuts Only: Red Dot Scopes

[Peacemaker]

Evening guys. I know we've got a few good firearms enthusiasts here on the forums, so I'd like to ask a question. I've always been an avid shooter and have played with some fun stuff. A few months back I took my Ruger Mini-14 Ranch Rifle and did a tactical style swap on the weapon from its factory polished wood frame.

The gun looks bad ass now, although I'm not 100% happy with the new stock. Anyways I've done a few kitchen table mods to it to improve on the abysmal accuracy that the older models suffered from (groups of 3MOA at 100 yards). I've reducing the size of the gas ring, bedding, semi floating the barrel (had to create a bedding around the barrel because the gas chamber wraps around it), and a dremel trigger job. Doing this has taken me down to groups of about 1.25 - 1.5" on a cold barrel. Now I've moved on to the aiming system.

The stock Iron sights on the weapon are VERY good for hitting a non moving target. Its a simple post on the barrel, and a peep sight plate on the rear. The problem is the weapon was designed so that the receiver was sitting higher than the stock. With my new stock, the butt of the rifle is now in line with the bolt to help keep lift down. This causes the iron sights to be very uncomfortable to use as you have to turn your head nearly sideways on top of the stock to see through the very small peep sight hole.

I had a 3 x 9 scope mounted on the rifle since I bought it and it worked after I did the tactical swap, but the gun is now shorter with a forgrip and pistol grip. The gun is very nice and comfortable to hold, but a scope is too hard to acquire fast. My solution was a Millett Red Dot Scope, which I've now come to love on the top of the rifle. It looks good, feels pretty sturdy, and makes for fast targeting out to the range that the rifle will perform accurately (250 yards to hit in a 3" group I figure, might shoot ok out to 350 with good loads). The sight its self is a 1MOA - 10MOA on the fly adjustable another feature I like. Now here is the problem.

I've never had a problem sighting in a gun before as usually I can strap it down and put a round on paper at 50 - 100 yards and then walk the scope onto the POI, problem is this is with this thing I havn't had any luck at all. I put it on paper with the iron sight, with the rifle on a sled, then put the red dot on, set the red dot onto the POI and then pull the trigger again. NO luck at all, put 30 rounds through trying to get it on paper with the sight on. SOOOO I said screw it, Ill cheat, and purchased a bore sight laser kit. Another wall though, the scope wont let the laser dot show up its invisible.

Wtf am I doing wrong? I've googled how to sight these things in but no luck at all. Anyone have any ideas? Tricks?

[firecrackerNC]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aimbot
thats what I use, works like a charm

[Firefly]

There's a difference in a red-dot and a laser beam. A boresight laser impacts on the target. The red-dot is basically reflected on the glass/plastic.

Personally I think red-dots are shit. I don't use them, EVER. That's my personal preference because I grew up on iron sights and scopes, and when I joined the Army they taught me combat-shooting with both eyes open on an iron sight.

[Firefly]

Jesus in heaven both eyes open?! I've never been taught that, and sounds extremely difficult. KUDOS to you and that ability!
Pretty much every spec-ops operator that I've ever come across does it, and everyone I ever served with that was combat arms does it - it was taught to me by a nasty old Ranger master sergeant (and by old I mean 29). I carried his lessons with me and there's one thing I've learned from that, moving forward. If you've been taught, from an early age, the habit of clenching one eye shut and peering down an iron sight then that's an extremely difficult habit to break.

Hold your finger in a pointing position and bring the back of your hand to your cheek so that you're looking down your finger. Close your other eye as if your finger were your weapon barrel. See how diminished your field of view is? Now open it and adjust your point of view. You have a much wider field of view. Dudes on the battlefield don't die as often when they can fucking see straight. Hard to flank a guy who can still see out of the corner of his other eye, even if "seeing" means registering the blurry movement.

[Peacemaker]

Do you do that with long scopes too? I do that with iron sights but couldn't do that with a long tube scope, just didn't let me focus right.

[Firefly]

Do you do that with long scopes too? I do that with iron sights but couldn't do that with a long tube scope, just didn't let me focus right.
No. I use different shooting styles based on the weapon system. On a sniper system I use the traditional method because in the Army, we operate in tandem from concealment/range so there's always someone to guard your six and adjust for you if you miss. On a regular weapon system (particularly one where I can observe my bullet stream and walk my rounds in) I use the open-eyes method which is combined with the head-turn method... aka, wherever my eyes point, there points my weapon because it is "fused" to the side of my head.

[xmodum]

I enjoyed my EOtech (http://www.eotech-inc.com/products/sights/517) VERY much on my H&K M416 I had for most of this deployment. Very accurate even in full-auto, and didn't have to keep the same sight picture. But The CCO is a close second. No matter how much I don't give a shit about shooting at the range and dont try, wit the CCO I still get at least 34/40 targets on the Quals. I've always had to try really hard not to hit something to miss.